diff --git a/cmake/CMakeListsNrnMech.cmake b/cmake/CMakeListsNrnMech.cmake
index 6d53842273..a5e0a9f39f 100644
--- a/cmake/CMakeListsNrnMech.cmake
+++ b/cmake/CMakeListsNrnMech.cmake
@@ -14,69 +14,7 @@ string(JOIN " " NRN_COMPILE_FLAGS_STRING ${NRN_COMPILE_FLAGS} ${NRN_EXTRA_MECH_C
 string(JOIN " " NRN_LINK_FLAGS_STRING ${NRN_LINK_FLAGS} ${NRN_LINK_FLAGS_FOR_ENTRY_POINTS})
 string(JOIN " " NRN_NOCMODL_SANITIZER_ENVIRONMENT_STRING ${NRN_NOCMODL_SANITIZER_ENVIRONMENT})
 
-# extract link defs to the whole project
-get_target_property(NRN_LINK_LIBS nrniv_lib LINK_LIBRARIES)
-if(NOT NRN_LINK_LIBS)
-  set(NRN_LINK_LIBS "")
-endif()
-
-# Interview might have linked to libnrniv but we don't want to link to special
-list(REMOVE_ITEM NRN_LINK_LIBS "interviews")
-
-function(get_link_libraries libs)
-  # CMake does some magic to transform sys libs to -l<libname>. We replicate it
-  foreach(link_lib ${libs})
-    # skip static readline library as it will be linked to nrniv (e.g. with wheel) also stub
-    # libraries from OSX can be skipped
-    if("${link_lib}" MATCHES "(libreadline.a|/*.tbd)")
-      continue()
-    endif()
-
-    get_filename_component(dir_path ${link_lib} DIRECTORY)
-    if(TARGET ${link_lib})
-      get_property(
-        sublink_flag
-        TARGET ${link_lib}
-        PROPERTY INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES)
-      set(description
-          "Extracting link flags from target '${link_lib}', beware that this can be fragile.")
-      # Not use it yet because it can be generator expressions get_property(compile_flag TARGET
-      # ${link_lib} PROPERTY INTERFACE_COMPILE_OPTIONS) string(APPEND NRN_COMPILE_DEFS
-      # ${compile_flag})
-      foreach(sublink_lib ${sublink_flag})
-        if(TARGET ${sublink_lib})
-          message(NOTICE "For '${link_lib}' going to see TARGET '${sublink_lib}' recursively.")
-          get_link_libraries(${sublink_lib})
-        else()
-          set(link_flag "${link_flag} ${sublink_flag}")
-        endif()
-      endforeach()
-    elseif(NOT dir_path)
-      set(link_flag "-l${link_lib}")
-      set(description
-          "Generating link flags from name '${link_lib}', beware that this can be fragile.")
-      # avoid library paths from special directory /nrnwheel which used to build wheels under docker
-      # container
-    elseif("${dir_path}" MATCHES "^/nrnwheel")
-      continue()
-    elseif("${dir_path}" MATCHES "^(/lib|/lib64|/usr/lib|/usr/lib64)$")
-      # NAME_WLE not avaialble with CMake version < 3.14
-      get_filename_component(libname ${link_lib} NAME)
-      string(REGEX REPLACE "\\.[^.]*$" "" libname_wle ${libname})
-      string(REGEX REPLACE "^lib" "" libname_wle ${libname_wle})
-      set(link_flag "-l${libname_wle}")
-      set(description
-          "Extracting link flags from path '${link_lib}', beware that this can be fragile.")
-    else()
-      set(link_flag "${link_lib} -Wl,-rpath,${dir_path}")
-      set(description "Generating link flags from path ${link_lib}")
-    endif()
-    message(NOTICE "${description} Got: ${link_flag}")
-    string(APPEND NRN_LINK_DEFS " ${link_flag}")
-  endforeach()
-endfunction(get_link_libraries)
-
-get_link_libraries("${NRN_LINK_LIBS}")
+get_link_libraries(NRN_LINK_DEFS NOT_USE_INCLUDE_HERE nrniv_lib interviews)
 
 # Compiler flags depending on cmake build type from BUILD_TYPE_<LANG>_FLAGS
 string(TOUPPER "${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}" _BUILD_TYPE)
diff --git a/cmake/MacroHelper.cmake b/cmake/MacroHelper.cmake
index fa0623c81c..d49628b5e9 100644
--- a/cmake/MacroHelper.cmake
+++ b/cmake/MacroHelper.cmake
@@ -199,3 +199,95 @@ macro(nrn_mpi_find_package)
     find_package(MPI REQUIRED)
   endif()
 endmacro()
+
+function(get_for_a_not_target link_defs lib)
+  if(NOT lib OR TARGET ${lib})
+    set(${link_defs}
+        ""
+        PARENT_SCOPE)
+  endif()
+  # CMake does some magic to transform sys libs to -l<libname>. We replicate it
+  set(link_flag "")
+  # skip static readline library as it will be linked to nrniv (e.g. with wheel) also stub libraries
+  # from OSX can be skipped
+  if("${lib}" MATCHES "(libreadline.a|/*.tbd)")
+    return()
+  endif()
+
+  get_filename_component(dir_path ${lib} DIRECTORY)
+  if(NOT dir_path)
+    set(link_flag "-l${lib}")
+    # avoid library paths from special directory /nrnwheel which used to build wheels under docker
+    # container
+  elseif("${dir_path}" MATCHES "^/nrnwheel")
+
+  elseif("${dir_path}" MATCHES "^(/lib|/lib64|/usr/lib|/usr/lib64)$")
+    get_filename_component(libname_wle ${lib} NAME_WLE)
+    string(REGEX REPLACE "^lib" "" libname_wle ${libname_wle})
+    set(link_flag "-l${libname_wle}")
+  else()
+    set(link_flag "${lib} -Wl,-rpath,${dir_path}")
+  endif()
+  set(${link_defs}
+      "${link_flag}"
+      PARENT_SCOPE)
+endfunction()
+
+function(get_link_libraries link_defs include_defs target exclude)
+  if(NOT TARGET ${target})
+    set(${link_defs}
+        ""
+        PARENT_SCOPE)
+    set(${include_defs}
+        ""
+        PARENT_SCOPE)
+    message(WARNING "${target} is not a target, get_link_libraries aborted")
+    return()
+  endif()
+  message(STATUS "Will look recursively to includes and libs of ${target}")
+  set(link_flag "")
+  set(include_flag "")
+  get_target_property(target_imported ${target} IMPORTED)
+  if(target_imported)
+    get_target_property(target_location ${target} LOCATION)
+    if(target_location)
+      get_for_a_not_target(link_flag_ ${target_location})
+      string(APPEND link_flag " ${link_flag_}")
+    endif()
+  endif()
+  get_property(
+    include_flag_
+    TARGET ${target}
+    PROPERTY INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES)
+  foreach(include_def ${include_flag_})
+    string(APPEND include_flag " -I${include_def}")
+  endforeach()
+  # Not use it yet because it can be generator expressions get_property(compile_flag TARGET
+  # ${target} PROPERTY INTERFACE_COMPILE_OPTIONS) string(APPEND NRN_COMPILE_DEFS ${compile_flag})
+  get_property(
+    sublink_flag
+    TARGET ${target}
+    PROPERTY INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES)
+  foreach(sublink_lib ${sublink_flag})
+    if(${sublink_lib} IN_LIST exclude)
+      message(STATUS "Excluding ${sublink_lib} from ${target}")
+      continue()
+    endif()
+    message(STATUS "${target} is composed of ${sublink_lib}")
+    if(TARGET ${sublink_lib})
+      get_link_libraries(link_flag_ include_flag_ ${sublink_lib} "${exclude}")
+      string(APPEND link_flag " ${link_flag_}")
+      string(APPEND include_flag " ${include_flag_}")
+    else()
+      get_for_a_not_target(link_flag_ "${sublink_lib}")
+      string(APPEND link_flag " ${link_flag_}")
+    endif()
+  endforeach()
+  set(${link_defs}
+      "${link_flag}"
+      PARENT_SCOPE)
+  set(${include_defs}
+      "${include_flag}"
+      PARENT_SCOPE)
+  message(STATUS "For ${target} got '${link_flag}' and '${include_flag}'")
+endfunction(get_link_libraries)
diff --git a/cmake/coreneuron/MakefileBuildOptions.cmake b/cmake/coreneuron/MakefileBuildOptions.cmake
index 1ab2de8e92..be2dfff45c 100644
--- a/cmake/coreneuron/MakefileBuildOptions.cmake
+++ b/cmake/coreneuron/MakefileBuildOptions.cmake
@@ -35,70 +35,15 @@ set_property(GLOBAL APPEND_STRING PROPERTY CORENRN_LIB_LINK_FLAGS " -lcorenrnmec
 if(NOT CORENRN_ENABLE_SHARED)
   set_property(GLOBAL APPEND_STRING PROPERTY CORENRN_LIB_LINK_FLAGS " -Wl,--no-whole-archive")
 endif()
-# Essentially we "just" want to unpack the CMake dependencies of the `coreneuron-core` target into a
-# plain string that we can bake into the Makefiles in both NEURON and CoreNEURON.
-function(coreneuron_process_library_path library)
-  get_filename_component(library_dir "${library}" DIRECTORY)
-  if(NOT library_dir)
-    # In case target is not a target but is just the name of a library, e.g. "dl"
-    set_property(GLOBAL APPEND_STRING PROPERTY CORENRN_LIB_LINK_DEP_FLAGS " -l${library}")
-  elseif("${library_dir}" MATCHES "^(/lib|/lib64|/usr/lib|/usr/lib64)$")
-    # e.g. /usr/lib64/libpthread.so -> -lpthread TODO: consider using
-    # https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/variable/CMAKE_LANG_IMPLICIT_LINK_DIRECTORIES.html, or
-    # dropping this special case entirely
-    get_filename_component(libname ${library} NAME_WE)
-    string(REGEX REPLACE "^lib" "" libname ${libname})
-    set_property(GLOBAL APPEND_STRING PROPERTY CORENRN_LIB_LINK_DEP_FLAGS " -l${libname}")
-  else()
-    # It's a full path, include that on the line
-    set_property(GLOBAL APPEND_STRING PROPERTY CORENRN_LIB_LINK_DEP_FLAGS
-                                               " -Wl,-rpath,${library_dir} ${library}")
-  endif()
-endfunction()
-function(coreneuron_process_target target)
-  if(TARGET ${target})
-    if(NOT target STREQUAL "coreneuron-core")
-      # This is a special case: libcoreneuron-core.a is manually unpacked into .o files by the
-      # nrnivmodl-core Makefile, so we do not want to also emit an -lcoreneuron-core argument.
-      get_target_property(target_inc_dirs ${target} INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES)
-      if(target_inc_dirs)
-        foreach(inc_dir_genex ${target_inc_dirs})
-          string(GENEX_STRIP "${inc_dir_genex}" inc_dir)
-          if(inc_dir)
-            set_property(GLOBAL APPEND_STRING PROPERTY CORENRN_EXTRA_COMPILE_FLAGS " -I${inc_dir}")
-          endif()
-        endforeach()
-      endif()
-      get_target_property(target_imported ${target} IMPORTED)
-      if(target_imported)
-        # In this case we can extract the full path to the library
-        get_target_property(target_location ${target} LOCATION)
-        coreneuron_process_library_path(${target_location})
-      else()
-        # This is probably another of our libraries, like -lcoreneuron-cuda. We might need to add -L
-        # and an RPATH later.
-        set_property(GLOBAL APPEND_STRING PROPERTY CORENRN_LIB_LINK_DEP_FLAGS " -l${target}")
-      endif()
-    endif()
-    get_target_property(target_libraries ${target} LINK_LIBRARIES)
-    if(target_libraries)
-      foreach(child_target ${target_libraries})
-        coreneuron_process_target(${child_target})
-      endforeach()
-    endif()
-    return()
-  endif()
-  coreneuron_process_library_path("${target}")
-endfunction()
-coreneuron_process_target(coreneuron-core)
-get_property(CORENRN_LIB_LINK_DEP_FLAGS GLOBAL PROPERTY CORENRN_LIB_LINK_DEP_FLAGS)
+
+get_link_libraries(CORENRN_LIB_LINK_DEP_FLAGS CORENRN_EXTRA_COMPILE_FLAGS coreneuron-core "")
+
 set_property(GLOBAL APPEND_STRING PROPERTY CORENRN_LIB_LINK_FLAGS " ${CORENRN_LIB_LINK_DEP_FLAGS}")
 # In static builds then NEURON uses dlopen(nullptr, ...) to look for the corenrn_embedded_run
 # symbol, which comes from libcoreneuron-core.a and gets included in libcorenrnmech.
 if(NOT CORENRN_ENABLE_SHARED)
   set_property(GLOBAL APPEND_STRING PROPERTY CORENRN_LIB_LINK_FLAGS " -rdynamic")
 endif()
-get_property(CORENRN_EXTRA_COMPILE_FLAGS GLOBAL PROPERTY CORENRN_EXTRA_COMPILE_FLAGS)
 get_property(CORENRN_LIB_LINK_FLAGS GLOBAL PROPERTY CORENRN_LIB_LINK_FLAGS)
 
 # Detect if --start-group and --end-group are valid linker arguments. These are typically needed
diff --git a/src/coreneuron/CMakeLists.txt b/src/coreneuron/CMakeLists.txt
index 3594329de6..286aefacc0 100644
--- a/src/coreneuron/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/coreneuron/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -492,7 +492,7 @@ endforeach()
 
 # we can link to MPI libraries in non-dynamic-mpi build
 if(NRN_ENABLE_MPI AND NOT NRN_ENABLE_MPI_DYNAMIC)
-  target_link_libraries(coreneuron-core PUBLIC ${MPI_CXX_LIBRARIES})
+  target_link_libraries(coreneuron-core PUBLIC ${MPI_C_LIBRARIES})
 endif()
 
 # ~~~